decay vs development

decay

verb
  • To undergo bit rot, that is, gradual degradation. 

  • To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality. 

  • To undergo optical decay, that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon. 

  • Loss of airspeed due to drag. 

  • To undergo software rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment, so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete. 

  • To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay. 

  • To cause to rot or deteriorate. 

  • Of an array: to lose its type and dimensions and be reduced to a pointer, for example when passed to a function. 

  • To rot, to go bad. 

  • To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body). 

noun
  • The process or result of being gradually decomposed. 

  • A deterioration of condition; loss of status or fortune. 

  • The situation, in programming languages such as C, where an array loses its type and dimensions and is reduced to a pointer, for example by passing it to a function. 

development

noun
  • The process of developing; growth, directed change. 

  • A project consisting of one or more commercial or residential buildings. 

  • The active placement of the pieces, or the process of achieving it. 

  • The expression of a function in the form of a series. 

  • The building of such a project. 

  • Something which has developed. 

  • The application of new ideas to practical problems (cf. research). 

  • The process by in which previous material is transformed and restated. 

  • The second section of a piece of music in sonata form, in which the original theme is revisited in altered and varying form. 

  • The process by which a mature multicellular organism or part of an organism is produced by the addition of new cells. 

How often have the words decay and development occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )